DISCLAIMER

This policy is valid from 22 May 2008.

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The US Federal Aviation Authority has issued an alert to airlines reminding them that its not just passengers who should keep their phones switched off, but pilots too.

The alert follows an incident where an air-safety inspector was observing take-off, moments prior to which the crew heard a "warbling sound" which turned out to be the First Officer's phone ringing.

Worse still, the Airline's General Operations Manual - the bible of procedures - contained no prohibition on crew leaving their phones switched on, unlike passengers who can't even use an MP3 player during take off and landing.

Flight Global, who reported the story, points out that FAA guidelines state explicitly that mobile phones "will not be authorized for use while the aircraft is being taxied for departure after leaving the gate", making no distinction between crew and passengers.

The alert to airlines recommends the director of operations for each company review the General Operations Manual and ensure that crew are required to switch off their mobile phones, at least until proper in-flight connectivity is available to everyone.